Click to play videoAlbuquerque (New Mexico): President Bush recently approved legislation allowing public schools to separate classes by gender in the US.
In New Mexico, a middle school already has single-sex classes as part of a pilot program.
Aleli Colon is a sixth-grade Math teacher at Van Buren Middle School.
She's part of a pilot program, testing out where single-sex classes improve students' grades.
"I have one all-girls class, one all-boys class and one mixed," she says.
In mixed classes, she says many girls would hesitate to offer answers.
"When they (girls) made mistakes, they would get so embarrassed because there were some guys in the classroom who would make fun of them," she adds.
As far as the boys are concerned, they wouldn't ask for help. "They would rather look like they're tough and not do their homework than admit that they did not understand it," Colon says.
When CNN spoke to both boys and girls about same gender classes, they all said they liked them but for very different reasons.
"It's actually pretty nice because you're not worried about getting embarrassed in front of the boy you like," says a student, Brooke Hansen.
Brooke says her three all-girl classes are her favorite and she's seen her grades go up. Another student, Jesse Tourne, says his grades have gone up as well.
"I think this year because we are only boys in the class and there are no girls talking, we learn faster," he says.
Nine weeks into the program, Principal Carmen Graham says test results look promising, especially for eighth-grade girls in Math.
"Their scores are higher than the mixed classes that we have," says Graham.
The district is watching this pilot program carefully. If students' grades go up in single-sex classes, they may expand to more schools next year.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
More on IBNLive Right Now
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
